Today In The Past
Events
483 – St Felix III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
607 – 12th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet
1138 – German king Koenraad II von Hohenstaufen crowned
1519 – Cortez lands in Mexico
1567 – Battle at Oosterweel: Spanish troops destroy Geuzenleger
1569 – Battle of Jarnac, Count of Anjou defeats Huguenots
1591 – Battle at Tondibi: Moroccans army under Judar beats sultan Askia Ishaq II of Songhai
1677 – Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000
1781 – Sir William Herschel sees “comet” (really discovered Uranus)
1852 – Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the NY Lantern weekly
1865 – Jefferson Davis signs bill authorizing use of slaves as soldiers
1865 – US Confederate Congress calls on black slaves for field service
1868 – Senate begins US President Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial
1884 – Siege of Khartoum Sudan begins
1887 – Chester Greenwood of Maine patents earmuffs
1888 – Great Blizzard of 1888 rages
1894 – J L Johnstone of England invents horse racing starting gate
1897 – San Diego State University is founded.
1900 – British troops occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State
1900 – In France the length of the workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law.
1913 – Kansas legislature approved censorship of motion pictures
1915 – Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson tries to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane, but the pilot substituted a grapefruit
1921 – Mongolia (formerly Outer Mongolia) declares independence from China
1925 – Tennessee makes it unlawful to teach evolution
1930 – Clyde Tombaugh announces discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory
1933 – Banks reopen
1933 – Josef Goebbels becomes German minister of Information & Propaganda
1935 – Driving tests introduced in Great Britain
1943 – Failed assassin attempt on Hitler during Smolensk-Rastenburg flight
1949 – US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Yvonne C Sherman
1949 – US Mens Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button
1950 – General Motors reports net earnings of $656,434,232 (record)
1951 – Israel demands DM 6.2 billion compensation from Germany
1954 – Braves’ Bobby Thomson breaks his ankle, he is replaced by Hank Aaron
1954 – Viet Minh General Giap opens assault on Dien Bien Phu
1957 – Bloody battles after anti-Batista demonstration in Havana Cuba
1961 – Floyd Patterson KOs Ingemar Johansson in 6 for heavyweight boxing title
1961 – Old type, black & white notes cease to be legal tender
1962 – Yugoslavia grants 1,000 prisoners amnesty
1963 – 2 Russian reconnaissance flights over Alaska
1965 – Jeff Beck replaces Eric Clapton of the Yardbirds
1967 – Congo sentences ex-premier Moise Tsjombe to death
1969 – Apollo 9 returns to Earth
1970 – Digital Equipment Corp introduces PDP-11 minicomputer
1980 – Eric Heiden skates world record 1000m (1:13.60)
1980 – Ford Motor Co found innocent in death of 3 women in a fiery Pinto
1981 – Attempt on Pope John Paul II by Mehemet Ali Agca
1982 – Ice Dance Championship at Copenhagen won by Torvill & Dean (GRB)
1982 – Ice Pairs Championship at Copenhagen won by Baess & Thierbach (GDR)
1982 – Men’s Fig Skating Champions in Copenhagen won by Scott Hamilton (USA)
1982 – Worlds Ladies Fig Skate Champs in Copenhagen won by Elaine Zayak (USA)
1982 – Elaine Zayak, lands 6 triple jumps to win world skating championship
1985 – Michael Secrest (US) begins 24-hr ride of 516 miles, 427 yards
1986 – Microsoft has its Initial public offering.
1987 – John Gotti is acquitted of racketeering
1989 – 27th shuttle, Discovery 8, launched, 1st woman to do the countdown
1991 – Exxon pays $1-billion dollars in fines & cleanup of Valdez oil spill
1992 – FCC rules companies can own 30 AM & 30 FM stations (formerly 12)
1992 – Martina Navratilova & Judy Nelson settle their galamony suit
1993 – Blizzard of ’93 hits north-east US
1996 – Dunblane massacre: in Dunblane, Scotland, 16 children and 1 teacher are shot dead by a spree killer who then commits suicide.
1997 – The Phoenix lights were seen over Phoenix, Arizona by hundreds of people, and by millions on television. They are now a hotly debated controversy.
2003 – Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old footprints of an upright-walking human have been found in Italy.
2005 – Terry Ratzmann shoots and kills six members of the Living Church of God and the minister at Sheraton Inn in Brookfield, Wisconsin before killing himself.
2008 – Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000.00 an ounce for the first time.
2012 – Encyclopedia Britannica announces that it will no longer publish printed versions of its encyclopedia
Births
1372 – Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans, brother of Charles VI of France (d. 1407)
1548 – Sasbout Vosmeer, Dutch Catholic theologist/apostole
1683 – John Theophilus Desaguliers, French-British philosopher (d. 1744)
1696 – Louis F A D Duke de Richelieu, French marshal
1719 – John Griffin Whitwell, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, British field marshal (d. 1797)
1720 – Charles Bonnet, Swiss naturalist and writer (d. 1793)
1733 – Joseph Priestly, England, clergyman/scientist (discovered oxygen)
1764 – Charles Earl Grey, (Whig), British PM (1830-34)
1770 – Daniel Lambert, England, giant (weighed 739 lbs (334 kg) at death)
1818 – Albion Parris Howe, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1897
1820 – Louis Herbert, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1901
1855 – Percival “Percy” Lowell, US astronomer (predicted discovery of Pluto)
1886 – John “Home Run” Baker, hall of famer (hit 2 HR in 1911 world series)
1904 – Henry Iliffe Cozens, pilot
1908 – Walter Annenberg, Milwaukee, publisher (Triangle-TV Guide)/Amb to GB
1911 – L[aFayette] Ron Hubbard, sci-fi writer/scientologist (Dianetics)
1912 – James Friell, political cartoonist
1913 – Sammy Kaye, saxophonist (Swing & Sway with Sammy Kaye)
1913 – William J Casey, headed CIA during Iran-contra scandal (1981-87)
1914 – Edward O’Hare, American pilot (d. 1943)
1921 – Allan Jaffee, comic strip cartoonist/illustrator (MAD Magazine)
1923 – William F. Bolger, 65th Postmaster General of the United States (d. 1989)
1925 – Roy Haynes, US jazz drummer (Trio Music with Chick Corea)
1926 – Raul Alfonsín, Argentine pres (1983-89) (or 3/12/1927)
1929 – Peter Breck, Rochester NY, actor (Black Saddle, Big Valley, Benji), (d. 2012)
1929 – Walter Medio, race horse trainer
1933 – Mike Stoller, composer (Lieber & Stoller-Hound Dog, Charlie Brown)
1935 – Michael Walzer, American philosopher
1936 – Clarence Nash, animation voice (Donald Duck)
1938 – Joseph Bellino, footballer (1960 Heisman Trophy)
1939 – Neil Sedaka, Bkln NY, singer/songwriter (Breaking Up is Hard to Do)
1942 – Dave Cutler, American software engineer
1945 – Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko, Russian mathematician
1946 – Yonatan Netanyahu, Israeli soldier (d. 1976)
1949 – Hiroshi Kazato, Japanese racing driver (d. 1974)
1950 – Joe Bugner, Hungarian/British/Australian boxer (European Champ 1971)
1950 – William H Macy, Miami FL, actor (Homicide, Water Engine)
1950 – Charles Krauthammer, American political commentator
1951 – Fred Berry, St Louis Mo, actor (Rerun-What’s Happening)
1953 – Deborah Raffin, LA California, actress (Ransom, Demon, 40 Carats)
1954 – Robin Duke, Toronto Canada, comedienne (SNL, SCTV, Club Paradise)
1955 – Glenne Headly, New London CT, actress (Dick Tracy, Making Mr Right)
1955 – Olga Rukavishnikova, USSR, pentathlete (Olympic-silver-1980)
1956 – Dana Delany, NYC, actress (Colleen McMurphy-China Beach, Exit to Eden)
1958 – Debi Nicolle Johnson, Torrance California, playmate (October, 1984)
1959 – Kathy Hilton, socialite-Hilton Hotels, mother of Nikki Hilton and Paris Hilton
1960 – Adam Clayton, Oxfordshire, rock bassist (U2-I Will Follow)
1967 – Colleen Rosensteel, S Greensburg PA, heavyweight judoka (Olympics-96)
1971 – Annabeth Gish, American actress
1971 – Robert Lanham, American author and satirist
1974 – Corinna Broiz, Garberville Colo, lightweight judoka (Olympics-96)
1974 – Thomas Enqvist, Stockholm Sweden, tennis star (1991 Wimbledon jr boys)
1977 – Ed Sloan, American musician (Crossfade)
1978 – Tom Danielson, American cyclist
1978 – Karina Smirnoff, Ukrainian dancer
1987 – Marco Andretti, American racecar driver (grandson of Mario Andretti)
Deaths
1202 – Mieszko III, the Elder, grand duke of Poland (1173-77, 1200-02), dies
1271 – Henry of Almain, English crusader (b. 1235)
1395 – John Barbour, Scottish poet
1516 – Vladislav II Jagiello, king of Bohemia (1490-1516), dies at 60
1558 – Jean Fernel, French physician/physiologist, dies
1619 – Richard Burbage, English actor (Shakespeare), dies
1773 – Philibert Commerçon, French naturalist and explorer (b. 1727)
1803 – William Emes, English landscape architect (b. 1729 or 1730)
1842 – Henry Shrapnel, British soldier and inventor (b. 1761)
1879 – Adolf Anderssen, German world champ chess (1851..66), dies at 60
1881 – Alexander II, Tsar of Russia, assassinated at 62
1884 – Leland Stanford, Jr., son of American railroad magnate, Stanford University named for him (b. 1868)
1901 – Benjamin Harrison, 23rd pres (1889-1893), dies in Indianapolis at 67
1906 – Susan Brownell Anthony, American suffragist, dies at 85
1911 – Jacob M van Bemmelen, Dutch physicist/chemist, dies at 80
1911 – John J. Toffey, American Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient (b. 1844)
1938 – Clarence S Darrow, Scopes Monkey Trial attorney, dies in Chicago at 80
1938 – Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Russian politician and intellectual (b. 1888)
1941 – A Coenradi, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
1941 – Bernard Ijzerdraat, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
1941 – E Hellendoorn, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
1941 – Isaak E Babel, Russian writer (Zakat, Marija), executed at 46
1941 – J Eyl, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
1943 – Stephen Vincent Benét, American author (b. 1898)
1949 – Henri Giraud, French general (b. 1879)
1963 – Austin Dobson, British racing driver (b. 1912)
1964 – Kitty Genovese, stabbed to death in Queens; 40 neighbors looked on
1965 – Vittorio Jano, Italian engineer (b. 1891)
1971 – Rockwell Kens, US artist/painter/illustrator, dies at 88
1972 – Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (b. 1941)
1977 – Fanie Lou Hamer, freedom fighter, dies
1977 – Jan Patocka, Czech philosopher, dies in prison
1982 – Wilfred Hawker, Suriname sgt-major, executed
1983 – Louison Bobet, French cyclist (Tour de France 1953-55), dies at 58
1986 – Alvaro Fayad Delgado, Colombian guerilla leader (M-19), dies
1990 – Bruno Bettelhelm, Austrian/US psychoanalyst, commits suicide at 86
1991 – Jimmy McPartland, US, jazz cornetist, dies
1993 – Ralph Smith Fults, US gangster (Bonnie & Clyde gang), dies at 82
1994 – Danny Barker, US banjo player/guitarist (Bourbon St Black), dies at 85
1994 – Edward James “Murt” O’Donoghue, snooker player
1995 – Leon Day, pitcher (Negro Leagues), dies of heart failure at 78
1998 – Hans von Ohain, German engineer (b. 1911)
1999 – Lee Falk, American cartoonist (b. 1911)
1999 – Garson Kanin, American writer and director (b. 1912)
2006 – Maureen Stapleton, American actress (b. 1925)
2006 – Robert C. Baker, Inventor of the chicken nugget (b. 1921)
2010 – He Pingping, the world’s shortest man who was able to walk. (b. 1988)
2011 – Owsley Stanley, Sound Engineer for The Grateful Dead and renowned LSD manufacturer (b. 1935)
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